Wednesday, 21 December 2016

These are especially easy as they use those festive ingredients and treats you may have in your cupboards at this time of year. I'm watching This Morning as I type this and I hear echos of TV chef in this post... apologies.

They involve minimal preparation; a bit of melting and prodding (technical term) but are fairly straightforward. Oh and they taste amazing. Your challenge: not to eat your entire yield of clusters before Christmas itself.

For the salted caramel

50g unsalted butter

100g dark brown sugar

30ml double cream

Maldon sea salt flakes

Also...

Pecans

Dark chocolate

I've not given quantities, as it depends how many you want to make. The ingredients will make a bowl of salted caramel sauce; you will need three or four pecans per cluster.

In a small pan melt the butter, sugar and cream together. You will want to bring it to a gentle bubble for about five minutes. Take off the heat, and stir in a generous pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes. Leave to cool slightly whilst you toast the pecans.

Throw the pecans in to a frying pan and toast on a medium-low heat for a few minutes, until you can smell the nutty aroma. Be careful as they can burn quite easily! Take off the heat, and place on a sheet of greaseproof paper in small clusters. I used 3-4 pecans per cluster.

Using a teaspoon, pour over the salted caramel. Ensure each of the pecans is covered, to ensure they 'glue' together. Leave to cool and set at room temperature for at least a few hours, if not overnight.

Sunday, 11 December 2016

Friday, 9 December 2016

Many backpackers will make the journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai (see my post here on what to do there) with the intention of travelling on to Laos. There are a handful or so different routes and transport methods to choose from, but the most attractive for us was arriving in Luang Prabang by boat.

Thursday, 13 October 2016

Monday, 10 October 2016

Before I went travelling I would use my blog as an online reading log of sorts; sharing my book reviews with you was a way of keeping track of what I'd read and hopefully encouraging some dialog around reading and recommendations.

Thursday, 14 April 2016

Saturday, 9 April 2016

After two short weeks in Palawan (in the Philippines, see previous posts) we flew to Penang, Malaysia. I will do a full post on Penang itself, but I wanted to take the time to show you the accommodation we stayed in during our time here.

We booked 23 Love Lane before we left the UK, admittedly after a few vinos one Friday evening. As you can probably see from the pictures 23 Love Lane is a beautiful boutique hotel, and therefore was priced slightly over our nightly budget. I've already mentioned that we're not slumming it on our travels; we saved a decent amount of money over the course of a year to be able to spend 40GBP (I can't find a pound sign on this Thai keyboard...!) a night. 23 Love Lane came in at around 60GBP a night - luxury, but totally worth it. We stayed four nights here, and loved every second of it.

23 Love Lane is billed as a Heritage Boutique Hotel, nestled right in the heart of Georgetown. It boasts ten gorgeously restored rooms, all representing a different era from the 1800s onwards. From the minute we walked in, we were in love... stunning architecture, a mix of mid-century styled furniture and scores of beautiful little touches that make this Heritage Hotel so much better than anything we've seen elsewhere. It really typifies Penang; eclectic and authentic.

What really made this stay for us was not just the large, perfectly styled room, or bathroom with complementary Korres products, or even the upper floor Anglo Indian Bungalow reading room where we could relax after a busy day exploring. It was all the little extras we didn't even know were part of the package. Breakfast was delicious - breads, jams, fruit, filter coffee... and then a whole menu of dishes made to order, which we indulged in. And each afternoon when we came back to the room to freshen up, the plate of nibbles waiting for us in the lobby that really hit the spot. After I ordered an iced coffee one afternoon when reading my book and writing my diary, and they remembered this and each day brought me another. When they placed fresh flowers on our bed and turned on the lamps in our room when night fell, so we had a cosy space to come home to. And it really did feel like home! All of these touches were included in the room cost, and as 'travellers', this really felt like luxury.

It really was four nights in heaven!

Next time, more on Penang itself. The internet cafe here in Pai is so painfully slow and testing my patience... so until next time, toodles!

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

I've managed to find plenty of time to read this Christmas holiday - in coffee shops, at home, at other people's house, at the doctor's surgery... it's been a real literary break! To me, taking time out to sit down, phone away and distraction-free, and throw yourself into a book is complete bliss. If there happens to be good coffee or cosy pyjamas involved then even better.

So over the past two weeks I've managed to read two books. Quite a feat for me; I'm a slow reader and usually struggle to find the time to read without falling asleep after a paragraph!

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller.

This modern classic, published in 2003, has been in my reading pile for months. It tells the story of Sheba and Barbara - both teachers in a London comprehensive school. The novel is narrated by Barbara, in fact it is her diary account of the scandal surrounding Sheba's relationship with a fifteen year old pupil. Yes, Sheba, an art teacher in her early forties begins an illicit affair with one of her pupils, despite being married and having children of her own... oh and it being hugely legally and morally wrong! Barbara doesn't find out for some time and when she does is horrified - but has a weird fascination and admiration for Sheba, perhaps explaining why she doesn't tell the school.

This book is excellent; incredibly well written, engaging and pacey. I found the whole topic fascinating and actually really difficult to read, as a teacher myself. Barbara's obsession with Sheba is captivating and Heller manages to make her appear really quite unhinged - it's creepy. I thought the fact that Sheba, a female teacher, seduced a male pupil an interesting topic. Had it been the other way round - a male teacher having an affair with a female pupil - I think the book would have read very differently. Double standards maybe? Something interesting to think about, anyway!

Little Girl Gone by Alexandra Burt.

Little Girl Gone is Alexandra Burt's first novel - given the title you may have guessed this was another in the series from Gillian Flynn. No such luck! Estelle Paradise (what a choice of name) has no memory of how she is in her current state; in hospital after being in an apparent car accident. Oh, and missing an ear. She soon understands that her daughter (Mia) is missing, and she is suspect number one. It becomes apparent that when Estelle discovered her baby is missing, she failed to report it to the police - hence her becoming their chief suspect of kidnap... or murder.

This book was an odd one, and I actually found it really difficult to follow! It's unclear whether or not Estelle is mentally stable - which I know is the point of the book - but when Estelle is finding out the details of Mia's disappearance I just couldn't keep up. Is her account reliable? Is she lying? Or can't she remember? This was, I assume, to help paint the picture of her mental state, but it just didn't work for me. The ending is Hollywood movie ridiculous, but satisfying that the 'what happened' became clear.

It reminded me of other memory loss stories; Before I Go To Sleep (SJ Watson), Remember Me (Sophie Kinsella), Still Alice (Lisa Genova)... and the like. An okay read, but overly long in my opinion and difficult to follow.